Runaway cat is now sweet 16

Sheldon the cat has well and truly used up his nine lives. And now, at the grand old age of 16, he is able to look back at a life in which he has been in more than a few scrapes.

His owner Corrina Thacker this week celebrated his birthday with a party — and reflected on an eight-week disappearance that made front page news in 1997.

Sheldon disappeared without trace in November that year but was reunited with Corrina eight weeks later after being found 90 miles away in Bristol by a member of the public.

The cat was taken to the RSPCA, who were able to trace Corrina because of an identity chip on Sheldon's shoulder.

Corrina believes Sheldon may have disappeared after climbing into a removal van at a time when new houses were being built in the Pendeford area in 1997.

The moggy was close to death when he was discovered in Bristol and the RSPCA had suggested he be put down because of the condition he was in, but Corrina refused and nursed him back to health.

"He was in a real state when he was found," she said. "He was having fits and was half blind and the RSPCA said it would be better to put him down.

"I got really upset and couldn't do it, though. It would have devastated me so we decided not to do it and to try to look after him and he's back to health now.

"I think this shows how important it is to have a pet chipped. It was fairly new in the 1990s and had we not done it, we would never have found him."

Sheldon's disappearance and eventual recovery was reported on the front page of the Express & Star on December 10, 1997

This week, on his 16th birthday, he was treated to a fish supper at the family home in Pendeford. "We sang Happy Birthday to him and he enjoyed his fish supper," said mother-of-two

Corrina, who works as a veterinary nurse at the Connaught House Veterinary Hospital. "We're all still really happy to have him with us after he was missing for such a long time."